December 12, 2025
This week, we met in Chicago for Mediation from December 9th to the 12th to negotiate on a revised Tentative Agreement (TA2).
Last night, many of you received an email from United corporate communications. The communication was written as if negotiations for the week had concluded. The email was misleading as the negotiations continued today. This week, Federal Mediation was from Tuesday through Friday. The typical custom would be to communicate once negotiations had concluded.
More concerning was the substance of the communication, which is really the focus of our update here. Incredibly, management came into this week's negotiations with a list of concessions, all of which we rejected in TA1. The proposals would reduce the value of the TA. Any illusions that management is sitting there with a better offer in their pocket should be dispelled.
The company proposed:
To completely eliminate our scope sideletter.
A PBS sideletter worse than the one we rejected during TA1 bargaining.
To eliminate PTO, reserve override and lower reserve guarantee.
Eliminating the improvements of 15 minutes of vacation credit from TA1.
Go back to 19 hours for downtown from the 17 hours in the TA1 plus added back in the downtown like language.
Remove reassignment pay on international pairings.
Contrary to management’s assertions in their communication, these were not options but actual proposals to make our Contract worse.
Any TA must include targeted improvements and must be overall better and not worse. But this does illustrate that the financial bargaining will be a fight, as management will resist increasing the overall value of the TA. Their position is that the overall value of the Tentative Agreement must match the prior TA. We of course are fighting for improvements.
Despite all of this, we actually did make progress this week on some of the issues. We made progress on the sit rig issue, which is one of the key concerns in these negotiations. We also had a good discussion on the issue of redeye flying and are hopeful we can make progress in this area. We will keep pushing forward with these discussions.
Management provided a proposal to reduce the length of the RAPs, but coupled that with unacceptable proposals to reduce the guarantee and reserve override, as well as go to a two hour call out in all bases except EWR and IAD. Needless to say, that is not what we are looking for but reducing the length of the RAPs is at least a step in the right direction.
Much of the discussion this week centered on pushing our non-economic improvements, which include changes to hotel language, electronic notification, and other provisions of concern. We have resolved a number of these issues.
Our January session will focus on the key economic and work rule provisions of the agreement. United Flight Attendants are being paid far below the industry now and we need economic improvements now. We are committed to pushing the negotiations forward, but we also have to fight to get the best agreement we can.
We are focused on the key issues and work rules that will shape our careers. Over the next few sessions, we will continue to build on the improvements in TA1 to secure an agreement that you deserve. Moving forward, we will need all Flight Attendants to wear your red pins and join us on January 15th for our Informational Picketing. More details will be provided soon.
